Featured!!! (Thanks Carrie!!!...)

Today I was featured in the blog of Carrie Waller, an amazing watercolor artist, in her "Friday Feature" series of artists. I feel really really really honored and happy... (Thank you Carrie for doing this despite your very busy schedule moving this weekend!...)

Carrie herself paints beautiful, sparkling, jewel-like watercolors of still life setups lid in dramatic lighting as well as landscape of places near and far. Her glass series have won top awards in national exhibitions, including twice winning Outstanding Watercolor Award in the FASO Bold Brush Contest (November and December 2011). She's also recently appeared in the "Artists Helping Artists" blog talk radio show. Considering the fact that for most of the past few years her husband was stationed in Afghanistan and she has two young boys at home to take care of, I am often amazed by how she manages to find time to paint everyday and be so prolific with high quality work... Carrie is also an incredibly kind and generous person and has given me numerous good tips ranging from the handling of the watercolor medium to how to better market my art in the big wild online world -- despite of her busy busy schedule everyday. I'm sure all of you have been to Carrie's Blog and Website -- both of which contain a wealth of information of how she creates her beautiful watercolors step by step, as well as her thought process behind these treasured watercolors. 

Preservation,  Watercolor by Carrie Waller , 14.5"h x 20"w

Thanks again, Carrie!

Falling Snow (Thoughts of You Fall Quietly upon Me...), & Slowly Proceeding forward with Spring Meadow, Tamalpais...

Ok, ok, I am admitting... Like everyone else I am addicted to the new HBO series "Game of Thrones". And after watching the snow-covered mysterious northern countries of the Starks for weeks, anxiously waiting for each new episode to appear on the TV screen every Sunday, I thought I'd pay my homage by doing some small paintings of snow scenes on Sundays. 

Falling Snow (Thoughts of You Fall Quietly upon Me...),  

Watercolor on Arches 140# Rough Paper , 7"h x 8"w, 2012 #30

Sold!

This Sunday's episode gives me a profound sense of loss and loneliness, which prompted me to try to capture the same feeling in this little imagined scene. I imagined it outside someone's window in the northern woods, and the thoughts of the host slowly drifting away to a distant place to be with someone she cares deeply about with the snow veiling the worlds surrounding her little by little... Life in the northern woods, where the life changes following the pattern of the seasons. A distant past, another life...

It was fun painting this one. I experimented with diluting the paint mixture little by little when painting each of the foreground trees from top down to create the effect of snow being blown by wind and drifting near the ground. Paper towels came in handy in wiping away the last bit of thin mixtures near the bottom of the picture to make them completely disappear. I played with calligraphic strokes on the dried weeds near the ground, and on the bare branches of the little tree in the foreground. A limited palette of Cobalt Blue, French Ultramarine, Brown Madder Alizarin, Burnt Sienna and a little bit of Raw Sienna was all that's used. Sober mood calls for muted colors...

I'm also progressing cautiously with my fog painting, "Spring Meadow, Tamalpais". I painted wet on dry using very fluid mixture of Cobalt Blue, Indian Yellow, Burnt Sienna and a little bit Sap Green, paying attention to vary the proportion of colors in the mixture when painting the tree shapes to make it more interesting. Near the ground, I thinned the mixture again in the attempt to capture the effect of ground mist often found in foggy mountain meadows. Again, paper towel came in handy here and there for lifting and wiping out... I am trying to be cautious about how many layers of trees to put in -- a small picture surface can quickly become too busy if I get carried away planting trees ;-). But one or two more layers may still be needed...

Spring Meadow, Tamalpais,  

Watercolor on Winsor Newton 140# Cold Press Paper , 5"h x 9"w, WIP 3

More Fog Paintings...

Here's one of the other fog paintings I worked on yesterday and today. This one is more of a struggle compared to the previous post -- I liked the subtle effects I already achieved in the first wash, but realized that I had to take the risk and put a second, third or forth wet wash on top of it to achieve the depth and subtle muted color needed for this fog scene. The foreground meadow was far too bright and saturated. In a foggy day the meadow may appear very lush green because of the moisture, but to achieve unity in the entire painting, that lushness had to be toned down just a bit since the water vapor in the air would affect even the most close-by objects and blur them a bit too. I did just that in the second pass -- wet the entire painting front and back and laid it on a piece of plexiglass covered with wet paper towels to extend precious time I can use to manipulate wet pigments on the paper surface. I used Cobalt Blue and Indian Yellow to mix the green for the tree line, adding just a tiny bit of Burnt Sienna to mute it further. The yellow and blue separated on the very wet surface, and formed a slight blurry yellow halo around the tree tops, which I really liked -- it reminded me the morning sun shinning behind the foggy forest. I experimented with stiffer brush and denser pigments on the foreground meadows a bit. I think the most scary part -- wet the entire sheet -- is done at this stage. I will add layers of tree lines wet on dry and work on the foreground meadow a bit more to finish it... (Instead of ruin it, I hope :-P)

Spring Meadow, Tamalpais,  

Watercolor on Winsor Newton 140# Cold Press Paper , 6"h x 10"w, WIP 2

I also spent quite a few hours really darkening the background foliages and adding wet-in-wet effects on "Peppermint Rose". Color granulates so nicely on Fabriano Artistico paper surface, but adding the required density of pigments are really painful to accomplish on this paper! I am in a love-hate relationship with it. The soft surface stop to absorb water and pigments much faster than harder paper such as Arches or Richeson, so it's very easy to have dense pigments pooling on a wet surface, creating mud. This one is close to a finish now, I have to be very careful with it...

Peppermint Rose, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, WIP 6

Morning Fog, Tamalpais (Finished), and Keying Petal Light #1

I worked on several small landscape paintings today, some turned out better than others. My focus was on how to achieve believable effects of a foggy day. This often means a lot of wet-in-wet painting to create soft edges, adding more blues to the far-away objects such as background mountains, and neutralize color rapidly from foreground back. Some lifting with a damp brush and tissue paper near the base of trees may be needed, as well as adding water to created a graded wash when painting a group of trees from top down -- as their base are often covered by ground fog and appear lighter and more indistinct. I did all of the above in "Morning Fog, Tamalpais", and introduced my warm colors (Burnt and Raw Sienna) only in the foreground shrubs to make they appear forward.

Morning Fog, Tamalpais,  

Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper , 6"h x 9"w, 2012 #29

Sold!

I sent out some packages of sold paintings during the week. One of them was a gift to someone living in the American River Delta so I included a little sktech I did the other day on a watercolor postcard by Richeson & Co. It was a scene right before the summer rain rolling onto the far horizon of the delta. The time constraints imposed by paper drying rapidly outdoors determined that a sketch like this cannot take more than a couple of minutes to finish, which I think is a great exercise for me -- since I am such a slow painter. I should definitely do this more often!...

Before the Summer Rain - Sketch of Delta,  

Watercolor on Richeson 140# Cold Press Postcard, 4"h x 6"w, 2012 #30

To switch gear a little I worked on "Petal Light #1" in between wet washes of the foggy landscapes. To gauge how much more work needs to be done to the leaves, I put down the local colors of the bird of paradise flower, carefully saving my whites on the lightest of lights by wiping away any astray colors in these areas with a damp brush. Then around the flowers I put down some of my darkest passages of leaves to see if the flower pops out enough. Putting down the darkest darks -- even just in small areas and lightest of lights (other than the whites you are saving) is very important in developing a sound value pattern of a painting. I often do this in small, isolated areas when I am developing a painting mid way, and get confused of how much darker everything has to go. I think I have a better idea now -- the bigger leaves on the top half of the painting has to go way dark, but maybe one or two value lighter than the leaves next to the center flower on a nine-step value scale. Now the challenge is to achieve that without losing luminosity and create a "black-hole" in the top half of the image. Some wet-in-wet glazing time...

Petal Light #1, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 8"w, WIP 5

Work in Progress: Petal Light #2, Beauty Queen, & Starting of a New Rose Painting (What?! Another One?!...)

Following the advice given by Kara, I'm putting aside "Petal Light #1" and worked some more on "Petal Light #2", starting to add complementary color -- blues and purples on the stamen. 

Petal Light #2, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, WIP 2

I also added some more localized washes on the background of "Beauty Queen", starting to break up the leaf shapes a bit more. It's still very soft and unfocused at this stage, and the colors are light. I will add one more wash to define the shadow shapes on the leaves, then starting to develop the flower.

Beauty Queen, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 5"w, WIP 3

And... Mad as it is, I just started another rose painting! I was so inspired by the glass paintings of Carrie Waller, that I decide to do a still life with cut crystal glass in it... The small facets on the crystal create numerous small shapes, which is quite daunting to me, but I think it will be fun to try to get that sense of light and transparency of it! The background is quite soft and out of focus, ideal for practicing what I have learned in the amazing Jeannie Vodden's class. I can't wait to work some more on it...

Greetings of May, Watercolor on Lanaquarelle 140# Cold Press Paper, 11"h x 7"w, WIP 1

Work in Progress: Petal Light #1 and Peppermint Rose

I have spent better part of the day agonizing over the first "Petal Light" series of bird of paradise today. On the reference photo most of leaf shapes are in shadow, therefore in the dark to mid-dark value range. Even the ones that are in the light have mid-value local colors, and the only light shape in the photo is the flower. To avoid a straight bull's eye effect, and make the composition more interesting, I need to find a way to make the leaf shapes more interesting. I have experimented with adding more colors of blue, yellow and even purple into the leaf colors, greatly exaggerate the color tendencies I saw on the reference photo. But I'm now at a point that the entire painting looks colorfully disintegrated. The lacking of unity coming from painting the leaf shapes as patch-work of color patterns makes me not sure of what to do next. It's been a struggle, but I will stick with it -- I believe this reference photo has great potentials of becoming an interesting painting, plus solving this problem would allow me to eventually do projects of similar kind in the future. So I am determined to fight through...

Petal Light #1, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 8"w, WIP 4

I also worked on "Peppermint Rose" a bit more, darkening the shadow shapes in the center of the flower. The flower now looks much more three-dimensional. It's a different kind of struggle for this one, since getting those dark shapes to look soft and diffused is not an easy task on the Fabriano paper, as I have complained in previous posts. I did enjoy the capability of lifting any color, even the staining ones, to almost white on this paper though. This allows adding and subtracting both light and dark shapes in the painting process, giving me more flexibility in changing the design of shadow shapes on the go. I am letting go of the reference photo at this point, reacting more to the shapes that are emerging on the paper and trying to arrange them into a more pleasing jigsaw puzzle of lights and darks. 65% done for this one, maybe?....

Peppermint Rose, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, WIP 5

I took my painting "Island Beauty" from the "Secret Garden" show hosted by Pacific Art League in Palo Alto today, and was happy to learn that it has got an Honorable Mention. I am very surprised and happy about it -- it's a national juried show with some great artwork, most of which very conceptual. It's a great encouragement for me to keep on improving, and explore difference venues...

Island Beauty - White Plumeria,  

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# Cold Press Paper, 6"h x 6"w, 2012 #12

Buy It from My DPW Gallery ($45)

Hide and Seek II Finished!

I finally finished "Hide and Seek II" Monday night but did not get a chance to post it until now -- it is submitted to the Montana Watercolor Society's Watermedia 2012 National Exhibition, fingers crossed for me!

Hide and Seek II, 

Watercolor on Jack Richeson Zoltan Szabo140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, 2012 #28

Buy It Now from My DPW Gallery ($350)

I am holding onto this painting from auction at Daily Paintworks for now waiting to hear back from the show. If it does not get into the show, I will offer it for auction with a starting bid of $250. If it does get into the show and not get sold there, I will list it after it's back from the show.

Work in Progress: Hide and Seek II (Continued...)

More development on this bigger rose painting today... I worked on several adjacent petals in a group, adding more saturated warm and cool reds to the mid-tone region of petals, and lifting out some light areas when the paints are still wet. After this has dried, I flowed in darker mixtures of Alizarin Crimson, French Ultramarine and Winsor Violet wet-in-wet in the shadow areas of each petal to separate the petal shapes from one another.

Hide and Seek II, 

Watercolor on Jack Richeson Zoltan Szabo140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, WIP 3

At the end of the day, most petals in the peripheral are at the right color saturation and value as they need to be in the final painting. For the shadow areas with warm reflected light, I used a mixture of Alizarin and Quinacridone Burnt Orange, with a small amount of Winsor Violet to achieve a warmer brownish red. I also started to develop the petal areas near the center of the flower, using mixtures of Scarlet Lake, Permanent Rose and New Gamboge for the glowing reddish orange hue in this region. I lifted the light stamen in the flower center before this orange red color has dried.

Hide and Seek II, 

Watercolor on Jack Richeson Zoltan Szabo140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, WIP 4

Work in Progress: Hide and Seek II, & Beauty Queen

I did a bit of work on both rose paintings today, adding a yellow wash on "Hide and Seek II", and another varied color wash to emphasize the different color tendencies in the foliage patterns of "Beauty Queen".

Hide and Seek II, 

Watercolor on Jack Richeson Zoltan Szabo140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, WIP 2

Beauty Queen, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 5"w, WIP 2

... What Is Arena Doing These Days?...

Whew!... Time flies, and before I realize there has been weeks without a new posting on this blog!!! So, what is Arena doing these days? Has she been slacking off, enjoying the rising temperature, the rare cloudless sky, the cheeriness-filled April air of San Francisco?... Well... Just the opposite! The weather here may have been more that welcoming and calling for outdoor adventures on all restless souls, but Arena has been locked in a little room with all windows covered with black cloth... And drawing =___=b......

Not that I have any complaints about it -- I have jumped on the opportunity of a lifetime (at least in my point of view) and started to attend an Atelier program of classical realism. The full-time program would ideally last 3-4 years, and each student would start from copy master drawings, then progress to drawing plaster casts of classical sculptures and live models, painting casts in limited palette, and finally to full-palette painting of still life and figures. It's rigorous -- 8 hours a day minimum, with the mornings dedicated to the progressing of projects suited to each student's level, and afternoons (sometimes also evenings) devoted to drawing from a nude model holding a long post for 6-week duration. Time slows down and each drawing is supposedly executed with extraordinary precision, and seemingly progress with infinitely slow speed. (I shall post later of my accomplishments of the first four weeks and illustrate my point.) And the whole point is to train the eye of the student to reach the point of precision satisfying enough to capture all the subtle beauty of a living figure. Although my ultimate goal is not to become mainly a figure but landscape painter, I do think this kind of solid foundation, and the ability of seeing the nuance of nature, as well as the ability to put down what you see in a simple but accurate statement, is of utter importance and would benefit me in the long run. The teacher I am training under, Andrew Ameral, studied and later taught in the Florence Academy  of Art for years, which inherited the 19th century French Academy lineage. So far, I am absolutely in love with the training, and I'm counting my blessings everyday for being given this opportunity...

But, this does mean I can only paint in the evenings of weekdays and on weekends when I am not in school, and that has significantly cut into my watercolor time -- thus the long absence from the blog since I have nothing to post! I am not happy with this, and I'm trying my best to squeeze more time into my watercolor projects. Learning time-management is the key, and comparing to Carrie and Crystal, both of whom produce amazing amount of beautiful work with multiple young kids, I shall say I have no excuses... Following their examples, I have decided to have more realistic goals regarding my blog posting -- making sure to post on Friday, Saturday and Sundays during which I can paint full-time, and at lest once Monday through Thursday. I would still like to finish at least one, and hopefully two small pieces a week, although in the midst of painting larger pieces for juried exhibitions, I may not be able to do this every week. We'll see...

So, without further a due, I will share a couple of projects I have started this week:

This is a painting of a very light pink rose with contrasting green foliage patterns behind it. My goal is to not go to detailed and literal on the foliage patterns, but paint them as slightly out-of-focus value patterns wet-in-wet, while maintain surface interest by varying the colors across  the spectrum -- in other words, not just greens for the leaves, but adding the influence of yellow, blue, purple and even pinks! I have only put down two layers of very thin washes on this one, using the method I've learned in the fabulous Jeannie Vodden's class. I'm trying hard to keep it light and airy, not to go too dark too soon...

Beauty Queen, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 5"w, WIP 1

Same process for this tiny painting morning glory which I'd like to submit to a small work show, and has the potential of becoming a commission. The challenge here is to create the effect of back-lighting -- light filtering through transparent petals, light rings around more solid stem and leaf forms... Again, I started with a multi-colored wash of three-primary mixtures, this time Permanent Rose, Aureolin Yellow and Antwerp Blue.

Rise and Shine, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 7"h x 5"w, WIP 1

This is a larger piece (quarter sheet is large for me :-P) of "Hide and Seek" which I am trying to complete for the San Diego Watercolor Society International Juried Exhibition. I've put down a couple of wet-in-wet washes here, mostly warm and cool reds, but also New Gamboge, Yellow Ocher and French Ultramarine to map out the blurry, out-of-focus leaf forms. At this stage I'm mainly focusing on value structures, leaving the center lid portion of the rose mainly white, and putting down soft, saturated color passages for the petals in shadow. I also paid attention to the petals receiving reflected lights and lights filtering through other petals, which are warmer than the ones in pure shadow. This is indicated by varying the color temperature of reds when putting down the initial washes.

Hide and Seek II, 

Watercolor on Jack Richeson Zoltan Szabo140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, WIP 1

What I found out is that a larger painting is not necessary slower in its progress than a small study -- especially when I have learned my lessons from the small study! That said, I don't like doing the same thing twice so I'm trying a different paper -- the Jack Richeson Zoltan Szabo #140 Cold Press for this one. Comparing to the Fabriano Artistico #140 Cold Press I used for the small study, the Richeson paper seems to glaze well, but much harder to lift. So I may have to vary the actual painting sequence of different passages, painting light to dark in glazes instead of darker to light with lots of lifting! We'll see how that goes... ;-)

I'm also trying to wrap up some old projects. The couple of rose paintings from February are close to be finished. For this one, "Peppermint Rose", I am trying to put in all the cast shadow and crevice dark now to create a sense of 3-dimensionality, while in the mean time fighting hard not to lose the brilliance of red colors in these shadow areas. Achieve true darks on Fabriano paper is always a struggle since it's so hard to glaze, but I'm trying...

Peppermint Rose, 

Watercolor on Fabriano Artistico 140# Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 8"w, WIP 4

Finally, "High Summer Dreams" has come back from the Jack Richeson 2012 Small Works show, and I have decided to offer it for sale with starting bid of $150! It will be shipped with a 16"h x 20"w mat and foam core backing board, ready to be stick into a frame! This painting has been juried into the 2010 North West Watercolor Society's International Show and won the president award, as well as into the 2011 Philadelphia Watercolor Society Works on Paper National Juried Show, and Richeson Small Works 2012 National Juried Show. It's also one of my favorite pieces. I hope it would find a loving home through Daily Paintworks...

High Summer Dream, Watercolor on Arches 140# Cold Press Paper, 10"h x 14"w, 2012 #1

Bid at My DPW Auction (Starting Bid $150)